Hi My Sweetie baby,

December held my one of my two favorite holidays… Christmas!  It was so fun preparing you and your bubby for Christmas this year, especially since it was your first, and his first time understanding the magic of it.     We decorated for Christmas while being careful that we now have a super curious infant who loves to put everything in her mouth, and a rambunctious 3 year old who has to touch everything.   In fact, we ended up putting a baby gate around the entire tree that kept you away from it, hahaha!  Hopefully one year soon you will stop pulling ornaments, and trying to eat them.       We had your very first Christmas card made that featured our family photo, and then photos of you and Lucas from our shoot back in September.  I LOVE how the card turned out.

This month you really started dancing.  All the time!  You love dancing.  To commercials, to toy music, to cell phone ringers, to anything!  It’s so precious.   You are coasting around on all the furniture, and even CLIMBING.  God help us!  You’re such a little dare devil.  You have also mastered the high five!  You get very happy with yourself whenever you master a new skill.   Such a funny baby.  You were 16 lbs, 1 oz this month, and 28.75 inches tall.  That makes you in the 80th percentile for height, and 5th for weight.   The pediatrician  said you are healthy -tall and skinny just like your parents.

In the beginning of December, you went to your friend Piper’s first birthday- a winter(one)derland party!  We were all decked out in our red clothes, and you even got to ride in your very first horse and carriage.   The weekend before Christmas we took off down to Tennessee to celebrate Christmas with Daddy’s side of the family-  your Aunt Jera, Uncle Kevin, Cousins Camron and Nathan, Your Grandaddy, Granny Pat, Gramma, and Papa Mike, Uncle BJ and Auntie Mischele, and Cousins Chelsea, Dylan, Tyler, Baby Brayden, Dakota, and Chase.    You got your very first Christmas presents and enjoyed ripping the paper the most.  Haha, what baby doesn’t?  While we were in TN you even got to go to your Cousin Camron’s basketball game and you LOVED it!  You thought that all the noises of whistles, and feet pounding the ground, shoes squeaking, and the ball being bounced sounded like music, so you danced the entire game.   You LOVE music.  You hear the music everywhere, and thoroughly enjoy busting a move and getting your groove on.  It was so funny!

After we returned from TN, we got to spend only a couple days at home until we had to pack up to go into Louisville for family Christmas there. Don’t worry, I told Santa where to find you on Christmas Eve.   We rolled into Grammy and PopPop’s house on Christmas eve and made sure to get our Christmas cookies for Santa in the oven (your brother helped me bake them).  Turns out Mrs. Clause wanted sugar cookies with christmas tree decorations in them, while Santa wanted chocolate chip cookie, so we made a batch of both!   We had a big Christmas eve dinner, and enjoyed hanging out with Dammy, PopPop, Muncle Mike, Aunt Katie, Uncle Potter, Grandin and Deanna.  You and your brother both got new Christmas jammies from Elfie the magic Elf  to wear to bed, and we busied ourselves getting ready for Santa’s arrival.    The next morning on Christmas day you and Lucas woke up to a HUGE, enormous stack of gifts!   We impatiently waited for the rest of the family to arrive, and once everyone got there, we tore into the gifts.   We had our traditional blueberry pancakes with whipcream for breakfast, made mama’s crockpot hot chocolate, and then got changed into your adorable Christmas outfits.   All of our extended family came over on Christmas night-  Uncle Randy, Aunt Christe, Uncle Potter, Cousin Kelly, and Max.  We played games, and you had a great time playing around on the ground with Grandin, trying to eat every single morsel of anything you found on the ground.   Another tradition that you may understand when you’re older is to choose a way to give back to the community.  This year we donated $$ to a Mom in a situation of domestic violence who needed help.   Every year I hope to help you and Lucas see the importance of giving back.  While this attitude is something we should have all year long, it is a good time of year to do a little something extra.

To round out the year, you went to your very first New Years Eve party!  As a family we went over to Kevin, Jami, Lyric and Piper’s house and got to enjoy the festivities.  You had on a beautiful cream colored dress, and you sweet personality glowed.  I am so proud to be your mom.  After you got to play for a bit, we put you and your brother to sleep upstairs, and Daddy and I got to enjoy the party with the rest of the adults.  As we approached New Years Eve it struck me that this year is over.  The year my daughter was born.  My daughter.  My girl.   It is so phenomenal to share this life with you.  I cannot believe that we are entering 2016.  I can’t wait to see what it has in store.